Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Dressed Horses Like Zebras To Figure Out Why They Have Stripes (vice.com)
Why do zebras have stripes? From a report: Evolutionary biologists have proposed many possible theories, such as camouflage or vision aids for recognizing individual zebras. But in recent years, pest control has emerged as the leading explanation for zebra stripes. Researchers led by Tim Caro, an evolutionary ecologist at UC Davis, set out to test this idea in the field. The results, published Wednesday in PLOS ONE, reveal that stripes are a powerful deterrent to horse flies, a common nuisance that suck blood and bite flesh. The experiment managed to find the most delightful way to help explain these uniquely patterned coats -- by getting horses to cosplay as zebras.
Not enough to dress themselves up as zebras, now they are doing it to horses?
I remember reading somewhere that the stripes were a product of evolution. Apparently, it is to confuse their primary predator, the lion. Since lions see only in black and white, the stripes are designed to confuse and disorient the lion.
Are the black stripes wrongfully profiled by the flies to attack them more often than the white.
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
ZOMG we must rally against this horrific appropriation and hate act!
I remember reading somewhere that the stripes were a product of evolution. Apparently, it is to confuse their primary predator, the lion. Since lions see only in black and white, the stripes are designed to confuse and disorient the lion.
Yes that is one theory. However it hasn't really been objectively verified. Kind of hard to do a double blind study on something like that if you get what I'm saying. That theory might be true or it might be completely irrelevant to how it happened. Most zebras are not killed by lions so it's quite plausible that lions did not create a significant evolutionary pressure regarding the stripes.
it gets dark,, animals cannot read? genetic tinkering is not that new? cease fire stand down.. the newer versions of us are sure to astound..
What you do in your spare time is your own thing. If you enjoy dressing up as a zebra from time to time, who am I to judge?
Since lions see only in black and white,
Lions see color just fine. Not quite the same as us but definitely not black and white.
This is not cosplaying horses. I promise you the horses do not consider this to be entertainment. This is horses being mistreated by so-called scientists needing to blow through some federal cash to avoid having to give it back.
Would not the better question be: what selective advantage did stripes provide?
I still do not fully understand the evolutionary reasoning here. If horse flies are a "nuisance", why was there evolutionary pressure to avoid them?
Generally speaking, according to the point equilibrium evolutionary theory, there should only be a trivial level of positive selection for traits that reduce trivial problems, and the selection should disappear once the problem disappeared. Are horse flies a continuous and meaningful problem for zebras? Furthermore, there cannot be an initial barrier to the positive trait, meaning that the stripes would have to emerge as an initial pattern immediately, it cannot have developed as first turning black and then developing white stripes (or vice versa) unless black (or white) colors also repel horse flies.
Zebra-style horse blankets have been available since a couple of years and precisely for this reason, get less trouble with flies.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
not possible? there's also strong rumor that equines are color blind?
What about zebra flies?
-Dave
From the article: "Two observers (JB and JL who knew of the hypotheses being tested)..."
For the study, 7 horses and 3 zebras were observed for a total of ~16 hours, on average 5 minutes per observation period. For a horse study, that is a lot of horses.
However, n=7 is still very low for statistics, and horse fly density can change a lot through the day. Much better than the slant-loading horse study (n=4, two horses preferred slant-load, results of the study changed the horse transport industry).
Is this a follow up to the experiment where they dressed Chris and Steve-O up as a zebra to see if they attracted lions?
I think the next step is to see if the same applies to smaller animals. take a cat, paint a white stripe down its back and see what happens...
They've tried that and it results in amorous skunks with bad French accents.
... or the adaptation worked out as intended
There is no intent to natural selection. It happens but it's not a process with a design.
So if you are in an environment with lots of flies would wearing clothing with black and white stripes help for humans as well?
Not questioning the conclusion, I just wonder why the other animals living in the same environment don't show the same sort of adaptation. Perhaps other species have stronger pressures from other threats. Or maybe a favorable mutation in some proto-zebra.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
So I recall these exact experiments before and what the reserachers found was that there were an equal # of fly bites on the black and white areas of the zebra, essentially giving evidence against this fly hypothesis. Wheres the source? Ugh, I dont know.
My favorite part of this is how the comments are filled with people chatting with a great deal of authority about why Zebras have stripes when the entire point of the article is that it's not clear at all to the best experts in the field.
...then prisoners would ride.
Of the 3 stooges painting some horse with stripes to sell to someone?? Or them buying some horse painted like that?
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time